What qualifies as YA?

I wonder if I'm writing YA. I very well might be. The main protagonist, while staid, solid, and non reactive, isn't an inauthentic teen voice. This assumes all teens tend to be hormonal, reactive, emotional, etc. which I strongly would argue against. In fact - it's my belief that teens, behaving maturely, would be a good role model.

Now, I guess I haven't read too much YA. But Harry Potter comes across as a pretty solid guy, but has a lot of baggage to deal with.

My character is young and was planning on being a carpenter. Now he's a magician that has been gifted strongly enough to attract the dark one's attention. So he has to deal with using the magic, having bad guys chase him, I've thrown in a princess that he likes, and so on and so forth. His friends actually have more "teenage stuff" going on - one of them wants to find his family, and the other wants to figure out where he belongs in the world. In a way I have a multipronged attack on the issue, which hopefully won't make things too confusing.
 
Definitely sounds YA to me as it has many traits my book has - even a princess as the title may give away- Princess Grace of Earth. I think "teenage stuff" is great to write about, without being stereotypical. I just watch my kids and get loads of ideas!
 
DelActivisto said:
I wonder if I'm writing YA. I very well might be. The main protagonist, while staid, solid, and non reactive, isn't an inauthentic teen voice. This assumes all teens tend to be hormonal, reactive, emotional, etc. which I strongly would argue against. In fact - it's my belief that teens, behaving maturely, would be a good role model.
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You got that right - when I was teen, I was pretty staid in some ways because while I rebelled against double standards for girls and sexism and misogyny, I didn't party or smoke anything or drink alcohol or have underaged sex. And I spent most of my time with my nose stuck in a book. And I had to grow up quick because I was made to be a free babysitter for my younger siblings and cousins (this is typical in many cultures - girls get stuck with childminding and house chores while boys get off scot-free).

So yeah - there are teens who are pretty quiet and/or mature in their ways during their growing up years.
 
The Bluestocking said:
You got that right - when I was teen, I was pretty staid in some ways because while I rebelled against double standards for girls and sexism and misogyny, I didn't party or smoke anything or drink alcohol or have underaged sex. And I spent most of my time with my nose stuck in a book. And I had to grow up quick because I was made to be a free babysitter for my younger siblings and cousins (this is typical in many cultures - girls get stuck with childminding and house chores while boys get off scot-free).

So yeah - there are teens who are pretty quiet and/or mature in their ways during their growing up years.
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Same here. For my part, at the age of 13, I had a farm to run. I learned a lot doing that and it really kept me out of trouble.

I did rebel in some ways, though... I rebelled against my teenage peers, who often enjoyed activities ranging from watching movies to hanging out, etc. I made it my mission to experiment with things, build things, try and make money, participate in activism, and argue with people on the internet. (Not sure how productive the last one has been. :p)

"girls get stuck with childminding and house chores while boys get off scot-free"

That's just because you're so much better at it! *dodges frying pans, run off and plays in a river*

Actually, I've had a lot of kids. Just not the variety you usually think of:

a ober doeling 2013.JPG


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DelActivisto said:
Actually, I've had a lot of kids. Just not the variety you usually think of:

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View attachment 39472
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Awww those are the only kids I'd want to have.



Actually wait no. If my better half so to speak gave birth to those kids, I'd probably have some explaining to do.. :eek:

Or get some explaining from my better half :confused:

Or maybe something we'd both agree on never to really discuss and just ponder it quietly as we stare the ceiling wondering just how we got some cute kids.o_O
 
I consider my novel to fit the YA category, although it is written for the entire family to enjoy, as in the good old-fashioned read aloud about the hearth. Here is an image of one of the sibling protagonists (and his professor friend) in, The Quantum Accident.

0613110955a.jpg
 
It's not a hard and fast category but I'd say most YA:
- has a young protagonist or protagonists
- is written in first person
- is shorter than an "adult" novel of the same genre/theme.

There tends to be romance/adventure in the mix, and a traditional narrative structure - a definite beginning, middle and end, which you don't always get in adult fiction. I think this is one of the reasons adults of all ages like to read YA. Sub genres include dystopia (since Hunger Games) and sick lit (e.g. John Green). Funny YA is thin on the ground but exists - nearly always in the form of an adolescent's diary.

I think Catcher in the Rye was important in establishing tone and theme for a lot of what's now called YA.
 
My writing group was discussing YA and a piece of advice given was that when writing for YA, attention spans are shorter and so chapters should be shorter and so should words. I thought that was a bit insulting to YA readership - young adults are mostly just as intelligent as adults, and attention spans are universally shorter these days. So I didn't think that was a fair assessment.
 
DelActivisto said:
My writing group was discussing YA and a piece of advice given was that when writing for YA, attention spans are shorter and so chapters should be shorter and so should words. I thought that was a bit insulting to YA readership - young adults are mostly just as intelligent as adults, and attention spans are universally shorter these days. So I didn't think that was a fair assessment.
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I think it's more to do with how teenagers consume media than their innate ability.

I asked my kids what they'd choose to give up: TV or YouTube and it was TV. We live in a bitesized world. Our news pops up, our tweets are short, blogs are quick. Is it any wonder they look for short, snappy chapters when that is what their brain is being taught to do?
 
Jo Zebedee said:
I think it's more to do with how teenagers consume media than their innate ability.

I asked my kids what they'd choose to give up: TV or YouTube and it was TV. We live in a bitesized world. Our news pops up, our tweets are short, blogs are quick. Is it any wonder they look for short, snappy chapters when that is what their brain is being taught to do?
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Insert rant about Twitter, Twits, and social media here.

Seriously. What do most of us do on social media? My whole old FB page is full of anti-Trump rants. No one cares. I don't even care that much. Everyone else is either posting political rants, contrived platitudes, or talking about what they had for breakfast. I've only got one friend who talks about anything useful on my old page.

I for one do not believe social media has benefited humanity. I think it has made it stupider.
 
DelActivisto said:
My writing group was discussing YA and a piece of advice given was that when writing for YA, attention spans are shorter and so chapters should be shorter and so should words. I thought that was a bit insulting to YA readership - young adults are mostly just as intelligent as adults, and attention spans are universally shorter these days. So I didn't think that was a fair assessment.
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I was gonna say... I can compete with the best of 'em for short attention spans!!

:D
 
DelActivisto said:
Seriously. What do most of us do on social media? My whole old FB page is full of anti-Trump rants. No one cares. I don't even care that much. Everyone else is either posting political rants, contrived platitudes, or talking about what they had for breakfast. I've only got one friend who talks about anything useful on my old page.
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I don't allow ANY political posts on my FB page!!

(Okay, okay... I created a separate page for 'em!) :D
 
Social media had harmed humanity. Honestly I see it more as a tool for thought control and censorship.

I think politics and social media can accurately be described as playing chess with a pigeon.

Today's society has decline I think. Granted I feel my viewpoint is tainted, after all most people suffer from the Classic first world problem syndrome.

A phrase I hate, but listening to some people it does match. If your biggest issue in life is deciding what special edition Apple Watch you want...

I so want to trade places with you.

I think YA is such a blanket term nobody knows what the heck it is anymore.
 
R.T James said:
Social media had harmed humanity. Honestly I see it more as a tool for thought control and censorship.

I think politics and social media can accurately be described as playing chess with a pigeon.

Today's society has decline I think. Granted I feel my viewpoint is tainted, after all most people suffer from the Classic first world problem syndrome.

A phrase I hate, but listening to some people it does match. If your biggest issue in life is deciding what special edition Apple Watch you want...

I so want to trade places with you.

I think YA is such a blanket term nobody knows what the heck it is anymore.
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Being very wealthy has serious downsides. It prevents us from understand the world in a more well rounded manner. It can lead to viewing poor people as lesser. I'm not saying everyone buying an Apple watch is a narcissist like in some dystopian novel where the rich live in the sky and the poor live underground in mines, but, a lot of times that basically what winds up happening. You've got these smiling perfect people wandering around who occasionally give a penny to a homeless guy and assuage their guilt for the next month, and normal people in between who hate both the poor people and the rich because of perceived slights - erm, anyways, yeah. I'm so dreading trying to make a social media base for my books. Hopefully my agent and other people will take care of that for me, because after a while, I wind up caving and calling someone an idiot. Whoops - there goes my reputation!
 
Young adult fiction - Wikipedia <--- that's what Wikipedia has to say on the matter.

I personally think young adult fiction is anything written with a young main character that is between the ages of 12-21 and features a coming of age story.

A lot of young adult fiction features main characters that have no parents, whose parents are mostly not present, or some sort of rebellion against older generations.

A lot of young adult fiction includes a moral, or is based on moralistic themes.

That's very generic though.

A lot of Young Adult fiction is hard to define. It ranges in scope and age specificity. A lot of the time I prefer to read books classed as Young Adult as they don't do a lot of waffling.
 
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